No. 19 Tigers Defeat Austin Peay to Win Sixth Straight
MEMPHIS, Tenn. – The 19th-ranked Memphis Tigers defeated Austin Peay 81-70 Saturday night at FedExForum behind a double-double from Nae’Qwan Tomlin to close out 2023.
The Tigers closed the book on the nonconference portion of the schedule with an 11-2 record, their most wins before the American Athletic Conference season since also winning 11 in 2019.
Senior forward David Jones led for Tigers in double figures with 19 points and five rebounds. Tomlin finished with a monster 15-point, 15-rebound double-double in just 24 minutes off the bench to go along with three blocks.
Nicholas Jourdain added 12 points and Jahvon Quinerly chipped in 11 points with four assists.
Memphis struggled to put the Governors (7-8) away after going up by eight points with just over seven minutes remaining in the first half. Austin Peay rallied back to tie the game before Jaykwon Walton sunk a triple in the final seconds to send the Tigers to the locker room with a 37-34 advantage.
The Tigers parlayed a 12-2 run midway through the second period into their largest lead of the night, 69-53, behind five-straight points from Jones. The Governors, once again, charged back and got within six points before Memphis put the game away at the free throw line.
Memphis shot 41.0 percent as a team (25-61), but struggled from long distance, hitting just 4-of-18 attempts (22.2%).
Austin Peay was led by Dezi Jones’ 20 points, nine rebounds and five assists.
UP NEXT
Memphis gears up for AAC action as the Tigers head to Tulsa on January 4 for a 7 p.m. tilt against the Golden Hurricane. They will then return home to host SMU (Jan. 7) and UTSA (Jan. 10).
